This invention concerns screens for garage doors of a type which are mounted to the bottom of the door and are able to be released to slide down and cover the opening formed beneath the bottom edge of the door when the door is partially opened. Such a screen installation is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,611,382; 5,860,465; and 4,653,566.
Garage door screens are advantageous as they allow ventilation while preventing the entrance of animals, insects, wind blown debris, etc.
These screens are intended to be installed on standard 8 or 16 foot garage doors, with the screen being of equal length. This relatively long length makes it desirable for two are more latches to be used to hold the screen in an elevated position so that the screen panel does not tilt to become angled with respect to the garage door. These latches of necessity are widely spaced such that it is inconvenient and relatively slow to release the screen panels by walking back and forth across the width of the door to release one and then the other.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a retractable garage door screen installation with a more convenient latch release mechanism.
The above recited object of the invention and other objects which will be appreciated upon a reading of the following specification and claims, are achieved by providing two or more widely spaced latching mechanisms each comprised of a spring loaded plunger pin urged into an opening located to support the screen panel in a raised position juxtaposed behind the lower section of the garage door.
A pair of common operator levers are located at a remote control location, each connected by a cable to a respective plunger. The release levers are disposed close together so that a pinching motion exerted by a finger and thumb of one hand can simultaneously retract both of the plungers to release the screen panel and allow downward movement thereof on a series of slides. Thus, release can be effected at a single location along the width of the door to render operation quicker and easier.